Calvinator

A shout out to Dave Nanian and Shirt Pocket's SuperDuper! I've been using this software gem for many, many years. The company produces a first-rate product, is diligent about updating when technology changes, does not try to squeeze its customers for cash each time the software is updated, and treats the customer with respect (is not on the subscription bandwagon). What a breath of fresh air.

If Apple treats Pixelmator like its own operating systems, we will see the interface rug pulled out from under us about once a year — just as we were finally getting comfortable with it. I swear, Apple's interface motto is "change for the sake of change (and job security), user be damned."

Listen, I'm as disgusted with Adobe as anybody, but to say Affinity Designer is comparable is just lunacy. Designer's handling of layers is its worst bugaboo. Everything is placed on a new layer, including each letter of text. How can you find or manage anything if you've got hundreds of layers?? Designer doesn't even have a way of moving an object a specified number of pixels. That's great if you don't need precision in your designs. I could go on and on. How do I know all this? I tried Designer for over three years, hoping with each release (including v2) they would wake up and make obvious improvements. Sorry, Designer is one big turd.

I began using Illustrator when it was known as Illustrator 88, and Photoshop since before it had layers. So you could say I've been around the block with these Adobe products.

After retiring, it no longer made sense for me to pay a monthly subscription to Adobe, so I decided to try the Affinity Photo and Designer software. That was a few years ago. I even upgraded to the 2.0 versions less than a year ago, setting myself up for more disappointment.

I wanted to love the Affinity products —I really did— hanging in there year after year and hoping for the addition of meaningful features. But no, everything accomplished so elegantly by Adobe was a jury-rigged workaround with Affinity. I came to the conclusion that Affinity simply gave up on making its software even moderately competitive with Adobe. With this recent announcement, I can speculate that Affinity was hanging around hoping to be acquired.

What an ugly mess of promises and potential.

Object lesson: If you show a little backbone, cancel culture is toothless. As is the inane agenda of the woke.